How do you measure the time between albums? The diary says that Iron & Wine's latest studio effort, Light lyricsit arrives exactly six years, eight months and one day after the previous one, in 2017 Beast Epic. Your record shelf, on the other hand, says it was two EPs, one Archive Series release, one Calexico collaboration, one reissue of his breakthrough album, two live albums and a documentary. Perhaps it's more useful to count all the mundane moments you've tried to be a good co-worker or a patient father or a productive artist or an engaged citizen—duties all complicated by a global pandemic that, for Sam Beam anyway, proved creatively crippling. These various measurements bounce around his skull Light Verse, an album keenly aware of the passing of time. Beam's abacus can be surprisingly gruesome: “Time likes to pull my teeth,” he sings on the brooding and cool “Cutting It Close.” “I never knew how many teeth I would need.”
All those pulled molars add a new perspective on just about everything. The beam re-emerges Light Verse with a dry sense of humor and a newfound ability to laugh at certain tragedies, such as death—both of others and your own—precisely because they are inevitable. Even back to Iron & Wine's relatively lo-fi 2002 debut, The creek drank the cradle, had a penchant for dressing up bleak truths with warm melodies and reassuringly measured vocals, not only making them palatable but finding beauty in sadness. Beam can still pull off this ruse with enough grace to make the title Light Verse it sounds very ironic, but now he looks back over 49 years. These new songs are about retracing your steps, taking stock, and raising a glass to lovers and friends who pass through your life only briefly. He spends much of the album wondering about the whereabouts of people: “I knew someone a long time ago, whether I wanted to or not,” he sings on the brooding “Taken by Surprise.” “We never said goodbye as far as I can remember.” This person didn't stay long, but it was enough to cause gratitude half a lifetime later.
The fresh perspective of middle age brings these songs to life and allows Beam to tinker with tone and form. Light Verse it's a lively, relatively cool album, despite its dark subject matter. He's teamed up with a new crew of musicians, including bassist Sebastian Steinberg and multi-instrumentalist Davíd Garza, who make sure they never distract from his songs. “Sweet Talk” has a 60s bubblegum grandeur that's new to Beam, and “Yellow Jacket” is so patiently crafted that it sounds epic despite being only three and a half minutes long.
